Arresting the decline in citizen satisfaction

According to our research, there has been a 11% drop in citizen satisfaction with public services in the UK between 2021 and 2023. In this Time to Talk event, we discussed some of the reasons behind this drop and what local authorities can do to improve their citizens’ experience satisfaction, while at the same time meeting their financial challenges through more effective and efficient operational delivery.

Our annual Citizen Experience Excellence Reportopens in a new tab builds on 14 years global research into what makes a good citizen experience. This has previously focused on the private sector, but in the past three years we have conducted research into how citizens experience public sector organisations. We analysed over 21,000 individual pieces of citizen feedback in relation to their experiences of the public sector for our 2023 report, and found that citizen satisfaction is lower than for the private sector, and is falling at a faster rate.

Six Pillars are used to describe citizen experience

Based on our extensive research, there are six factors – or pillars – that time and again contribute to delivering excellent citizen experiences:

Personalisation: citizens like experiences that feel tailored to them; for example, using information the organisation knows about them from previous interactions.
Time and Effort: citizens as a rule want experiences which do not require a lot of time and effort on their part.
Expectations: citizen satisfaction is highest when they have a clear idea of what is expected of them and what they can expect from the organisation.
Integrity: trust that an organisation has their best interests at heart is key for citizen satisfaction.
Resolution: achieving a resolution to an issue at first point of contact is one of the main predictors of citizen satisfaction, as also is speedy resolution of a poor experience.
Empathy: citizens want to be treated with compassion and understanding for their personal circumstance.

Our research shows that the public sector is behind the private sector on all six pillars ; the largest difference is in ‘Time and Effort’. This reflects the significant investments and advances made by private sector organisations into creating seamless, easy citizen experiences, and conversely the lack of available investment into the same by the public sector.

We found there are three key things that public sector organisations can do to make the largest positive difference in citizen satisfaction:

1.Balance costs with service delivery: we found that 45% of citizens couldn’t achieve first contact resolution when contacting the public sector. Resolution has the greatest impact on citizen satisfaction, causing an increase of 9% when done well, and a decrease in satisfaction of 17% when done poorly. Focusing on ways to improve first contact resolution, such as investing in digital, easy to use citizens services, is a cost-effective way to improve citizen satisfaction and reduce avoidable and failure demand.

2. Embrace new technology to enhance delivery: the vast majority of citizens, across all age groups, want to and would prefer to use digital services. We found an increase of 15% in citizen satisfaction with digital channels compared to phone/post. This is a large area of opportunity – we found that, despite a preference for digital, over 50% of the time citizens still use phone or postal channels when interacting with the public sector. In comparison with digital channels, phone and post are significantly more expensive.

3. Build integrity and trust: while we found 85% of citizens thought their data was secure, 30% said the public sector did not act in their best interest, decreasing their satisfaction by 27%. Citizens need to trust they will get the services they require if they are going to adopt digital channels.

There are some common reasons for citizen dissatisfaction with local authority services

Our research indicates there are some key sources of dissatisfaction with experience of accessing local authority services:

Citizens not being kept informed of the progress of their claim and/or not understanding what the expectation is of them;
Citizen journeys can be overly complex and convoluted. This includes not being able to get to the right person or team quickly, being passed between different teams, and not feeling that their issue is being owned and acted on.
Complex digital experiences can lead to citizens using high-cost channels. For example when an organisation they have interacted with before does not recognise previous interactions or data, if there is lack of accessibility, or if the digital interface is hard to navigate. This leads to citizens resorting to high-cost channels to resolve their issue, costing the organisation more and failing to realise the potential savings from digital channels.
Many citizens do not feel reassured or cared for. Many complaints examined were when citizens did not feel their council acted in their best interest or did not feel their personal situation was taken into account. This can lead to increased contact and complaints.

Councils can focus on some key things to improve citizen experience

Our research highlights some areas of focus for councils to improve citizen experience, and in turn drive productivity and cost savings:

Expectation management: managing citizen expectations and ensuring they are kept informed at every stage of their journey can help prevent repeated contact.
Empathy: continues to be the poorest performing pillar. Ensuring citizen service agents have the right skills and knowledge of services to support citizens and get to a resolution at first contact is an effective way to address this.
Resolution: investing in great FAQs, easy to understand and search websites, and AI-assisted ways to answer information-seeking contact is key here, as is providing capability for citizens to self-serve where possible to achieve digital end-to-end resolution to their queries.

Using the findings to deliver meaningful change

Satisfaction with local government services is declining due to unresolved simple queries and financial constraints leading to long wait times and delays. However, there is an opportunity to improve through digital transformation.

This opportunity is boosted by the rise of the digital citizen, accelerated by the pandemic, which has increased digital literacy among people of all ages in the UK. Now, individuals are more comfortable navigating advanced technologies.

Today, we can create seamless, user-friendly digital experiences for citizens, driven by increased digital literacy, especially after the pandemic. Embracing digital transformation requires focusing on three key areas: balancing cost and value, leveraging emerging technologies like AI, and building citizen trust.

When it comes to embracing digital transformation, our research highlights three key themes that need attention: the balance between cost and value, the crucial role of emerging technologies (such as AI), and the essential element of citizen trust. These themes emphasise the need for an approach that prioritises citizens:

1. Balance Cost and Value: Limited budgets hinder transformative investments. Innovative funding strategies are essential to overcome financial constraints.

2. Adopt Technology: Increase awareness and utilisation of digital platforms, streamline technology procurement, and reduce contract complexities.

3. Build Trust: Ensure effective resolution of issues to enhance satisfaction and bridge the gap between citizens and councils.

In a financially restrained climate, what should councils focus on first?

To bring about effective and sustainable transformation, local councils need to embrace a holistic approach fostering a culture that overcomes siloed decision-making. This particularly applies in areas such as technology, data management and financial savings delivery. Strategies can include:

Unifying front office technology – establishing a comprehensive, organisation-wide perspective of each citizen.
Amplify efficiency and insight via a data platform – to facilitate collaborative decision making across departments.
Get more from the use of AI – to optimise processes, improve efficiency and empower citizens to promptly resolve their enquiries.

At KPMG we work with numerous clients to help them prioritise citizen-facing change. Where to start will be different for each local authority depending where they are on their citizen transformation journey. The first milestone is to understand what you are doing well and where you might need more focus in terms of delivering citizen centric services. We offer councils a free citizen experience maturity assessment which will help you to understand this. Get in touch with us if you would like to find out more.